{{Short description|Mass shooting in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands in 1972}} {{Use American English|date=December 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2025}} {{Infobox civilian attack | title = Fountain Valley massacre | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | map = | map_size = | map_alt = | map_caption = | location = Fountain Valley Golf Course, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands | target = | coordinates = {{coord|17|44|31|N|64|48|52|W|region:US-VI_type:event|display=inline}} | date = September 6, 1972 | time = | timezone = | type = Mass shooting, robbery | fatalities = 8 | injuries = 8 | perps = Ishmael LaBeet, Beaumont Gereau, Meral Smith, Warren Ballentine, and Raphael Joseph | weapons = Firearms | motive = Anti-white racism<br>Black nationalism }}

The '''Fountain Valley massacre''' was a racially motivated mass shooting that occurred on the afternoon of September 6, 1972, at the Fountain Valley Golf Course in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.<ref name="daylabeet"/> The incident left eight resort employees and tourists dead. Another eight were either shot at or wounded.

==Massacre== The perpetrators were five Virgin Islanders, Ishmael LaBeet, Beaumont Gereau, Meral Smith, Warren Ballentine, and Raphael Joseph. Authorities initially believed the five had committed the execution-style shootings in the course of a robbery gone bad, but later developments suggested that the killing was planned by at least one of the perpetrators. Joseph and Ballentine testified at trial that they had expected only to commit a robbery<ref name="michaeljoseph"/> but that things got out of hand because LaBeet was adamant that they also make "a political statement"; LaBeet told them "he was angry about foreigners coming in to take our money and leaving us with nothing." According to Joseph, during the robbery LaBeet suddenly began shooting people, while yelling epithets like "I hate you white motherfuckers!"<ref name="michaeljoseph"/> The victims were identified as Richard Griffin, Ruth Griffin, Charles Meisinger, Joan Meisinger, Nicholas Baele, Alliston Lowrey, John Gulliver and Patricia Tarbert.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/08/archives/gunmen-hunted-in-virgin-islands-fbi-joins-broad-search-for-robbers.html|title=GUNMEN HUNTED IN VIRGIN ISLANDS|last=Nordheimer|first=Jon|work=The New York Times|date=September 8, 1972|accessdate=March 17, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/08/14/archives/five-get-life-terms-in-1972-virgin-island-slayings-spectators-shout.html|title=Five Get Life Terms in 1972 Virgin Island Slayings|work=The New York Times|agency=United Press International|date=August 14, 1973|accessdate=March 17, 2026}}</ref>

==Trial and convictions== All five defendants were convicted after a jury trial in the District Court of the Virgin Islands, a federal territorial court, on multiple charges of murder, assault, and robbery under Virgin Islands law. Each was sentenced to eight consecutive life terms.<ref name="greauxunwanted"/> Led by civil rights activist lawyers William Kunstler and Chauncey Eskridge, the defense at trial argued in part that the accused were politically motivated victims of systematic race-based civil rights deprivation; all the defendants were Afro-Caribbean, while seven of the eight murder victims were white.

The convictions were affirmed in 1974 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit,<ref>{{cite web |title=Gov't of Virgin Islands v. Gereau (502 F.2d 914) |url=https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914c69cadd7b049347dc5b5 |website=Casemine |publisher=Gauge Data Solutions Pvt. Ltd. |access-date=December 19, 2021}}</ref> which subsequently also upheld the denial of motions for a new trial.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gov't of Virgin Islands v. Gereau (523 F.2d 140) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/523/140/384389/ |website=Justia US Law |publisher=Justia |access-date=December 19, 2021}}</ref>

LaBeet has since denied any involvement in the 1972 shooting.<ref>{{cite web |title=Virgin Islands 3 |url=https://prisonersolidarity.com/case/virgin-island-3 |website=Prisoner Solidarity |publisher=Philadelphia Anarchist Black Cross |access-date=December 19, 2021}}</ref>

==Aftermath== The racial motivation for the killings and fear of further violence led to a steep decline in tourism to St. Croix, from which the island's tourism industry only recovered decades later.<ref name="greauxunwanted" />

American musician Sherman Kelly has claimed he was assaulted by some of the same perpetrators three years before the Fountain Valley shooting. While recovering from the assault, Kelly wrote the song "Dancing in the Moonlight" to imagine "an alternate reality, the dream of a peaceful and joyful celebration of life."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.shermankelly.com/about |title=Sherman Kelly |publisher=Sherman Kelly |access-date=December 27, 2019}}</ref> The song, released in 1970, later became a hit for King Harvest and again for Toploader.

On December 31, 1984, LaBeet (then calling himself Ismail Muslim Ali) hijacked American Airlines Flight 626 while in federal custody on a transfer to a new place of detention, using a handgun stashed in a lavatory.<ref name="kerrflight" /> He forced the pilot to land the plane in Havana, Cuba, where LaBeet escaped. He was never recaptured by U.S. authorities.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reporter |first=JOY BLACKBURN Senior/Investigative |date=2017-07-24 |title=Fountain Valley killer LaBeet making headlines again |url=https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/fountain-valley-killer-labeet-making-headlines-again/article_b77e45f1-57c9-5ae2-ad08-1bbedbb279ae.html |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=The Virgin Islands Daily News |language=en}}</ref> Cuban authorities did prosecute LaBeet for aircraft hijacking. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, of which he served seven years.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ahmed |first=Azam |date=2017-07-08 |title=Convicted of Murder, and Now Swept Up in U.S.-Cuba Shift |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/world/americas/cuba-trump-extradition-hijacker-assata-shakur.html |access-date=2025-06-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> With the thawing of Cuban–American relations in 2015, LaBeet was confirmed to be living at large in Cuba.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pennington |first=Shaun |date=2015-04-23 |title=Cuban Diary: Fountain Valley Killer LaBeet Alive and Well in Cuba |url=https://stthomassource.com/content/2015/04/23/cuban-diary-fountain-valley-killer-labeet-alive-and-well-in-cuba/ |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=St. Thomas Source |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-09-05 |title=Analysis: 50 Years After Fountain Valley |url=https://stthomassource.com/content/2022/09/05/analysis-50-years-after-fountain-valley/ |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=St. Thomas Source |language=en-US}}</ref> He was the subject of the 2016 documentary film ''The Skyjacker's Tale''.<ref>[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/skyjackers-tale-927595 "'The Skyjacker's Tale': Film Review | TIFF 2016"]. ''The Hollywood Reporter'', September 11, 2016.</ref>

Joseph was released from prison on December 22, 1994, after being pardoned by the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands. However, he died of a drug overdose four years later.<ref name="greauxunwanted"/><ref name="michaeljoseph" /> The other three served 29 years in federal prison before being returned to Virgin Islands custody and then retransferred to private prisons in the mainland U.S.<ref>{{cite web |title=Virgin Islands 3 |url=https://prisonersolidarity.com/case/virgin-island-3 |website=Prisoner Solidarity |publisher=Philadelphia Anarchist Black Cross |access-date=December 19, 2021}}</ref> As of 2022, they remained incarcerated at the Citrus County Detention Facility, north of Tampa, Florida.<ref>{{cite web |title=About the Case |url=https://vi3.org/ |website=Virgin Island 3 |access-date=January 4, 2024}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist|refs=

<!-- Converted to LDR format using User:PleaseStand/References segregator -->

<ref name=daylabeet>{{cite news|last1=Day|first1=Jim|title=30 YEARS AFTER MASSACRE, LABEET'S FATE UNKNOWN|url=http://stcroixsource.com/content/news/local-news/2002/09/05/30-years-after-massacre-labeets-fate-unknown|accessdate=November 26, 2014|work=St. Croix Source|date=September 6, 2002|location=St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands}}</ref>

<ref name=greauxunwanted>{{cite news|last1=Greaux, Jr.|first1=Jean P.|title=FOUNTAIN VALLEY PUT V.I. IN UNWANTED SPOTLIGHT|url=http://stcroixsource.com/content/news/local-news/2002/09/05/fountain-valley-put-vi-unwanted-spotlight-1|accessdate=November 26, 2014|work=St. Croix Source|date=September 6, 2002|location=St, Croix, United States Virgin Islands}}</ref>

<ref name=kerrflight>{{cite news|last1=Kerr|first1=Peter|title=NEW YORK-BOUND FLIGHT HIJACKED TO CUBA BY CONVICTED MURDERER|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/01/us/new-york-bound-flight-hijacked-to-cuba-by-convicted-murderer.html|accessdate=November 26, 2014|work=The New York Times|date=January 1, 1985|location=New York, New York}}</ref>

<ref name=michaeljoseph>{{cite book |last1=Joseph |first1=Michael A. |title=Fountain Valley 1972 |date=2014 |publisher=Strategic Book Publishing & Rights |isbn = 9781628579840}}</ref> }} Category:Attacks on tourists in North America Category:1972 murders in the United States Category:1972 in the United States Virgin Islands Category:African and Black nationalism in the United States Category:Crimes in the United States Virgin Islands Category:Attacks on sports venues Category:Mass murders in insular areas of the United States Category:1970s mass murders in the United States Category:Massacres in 1972 Category:Racially motivated violence against white Americans Category:Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands Category:September 1972 in North America Category:Massacres in the United States Category:Robberies in the United States